Fend off Aliens, Build a Japanese City in Heiankyo Parameters

The Heiankyo was an older Japanese city, today known as Kyoto. Its design is interesting in particular, following the Chinese rules of Feng shui — divided into four sections with various temples, an even split in the middle, with a larger, proper building called Dairi.

Looking at the simplistic layout in the browser game Heiankyo Parameters, it all becomes clearer, and without it feeling like a history lesson. The goal is to establish the Heiankyo while fending off aliens, represented by yellow fields. Meanwhile, players have to fill in all the empty land with housing, building up temples, markets, and upgrading their army.

The game has some RPG-like stats, such as ATK, LIFE, and DEF, which matter when picking off the pesky aliens. They’ll keep spawning if you don’t get rid of them, and you have to pick off targets smartly, because you won’t be able to handle certain groups. Meanwhile, you spend money and action points judiciously either on covering and upgrading more terrain, or on establishing markets and temples which give different upgrades. It’s a little difficult to grasp at first, but the game isn’t very difficult to beat.

Made by a Japanese developer and recently translated, the game does give off a distinct, Japanese way of play in more than just its thematic significance. While many RTS games let you sit back and wait for actions to execute, HeiankyoParameters rewards you for paying constant attention. I started doing a lot better when I realized that all the money and experience points are supposed to be picked up by mousing over them. Another important tip is that as aliens teleport in, you can fight them off by clicking repeatedly, and they can’t retaliate at that moment. The game really shines when you realize it’s not about winning, but about winning fast. Once I defeated all the aliens, I had a ton of land to upgrade, but since my stats were focused on combat instead of economy, I did it much slower than otherwise possible.

It’s a really fun click-RTS with amazing depth, even though the graphics are fairly simplistic. It could use a slightly better translation, but it’s good enough. I enjoyed playing it and will look to improve my first playthrough’s lousy time. Engage it in here, and if you’re like me, you’ll have a really hard time stopping yourself from playing.